A Few Finder Tips

Here's some Finder tips that everyone should know. Some of them I feel stupid about for not discovering earlier, some of them are obvious, some redundant, but most all are helpful.

1. Icon View Sorting
When one views the finder window in icon view, it is helpful for sorting photos. However, when you start copying items into the folder or accidentally (or purposely) dragging the files around, it can get messy (and seriously bother one's OCD). However, there is a fix. Hit Command + A (to highlight all of the files) and then in the OS X toolbar click View -> Clean Up Selection. Voilà, all of the files will snap to a nice grid and be arranged!

2. Some File-Moving and Navigation Tips
You probably already know that when you hover a file over a folder it opens the folder (this is "spring-loaded folder" which is enabled by default). However, this can be shortened two ways: the first is to hit the spacebar when hovering over a folder, which will open it immediately; the second is to change the time the folder waits to "spring" in Finder's preferences. You can also press Escape to sop the file move before it occurs.

3. The Finder Toolbar
If you have certain programmes, files, or folders that you like to access on a regular basis, you can drag the file, folder, or programme into the finder toolbar (in the window itself, not the OS X toolbar) and hover it there for a second until the + sign comes up and allows you to add it. You can hold Command and drag the file/folder/programme off of the toolbar to remove it, and can right click (or control click) on the toolbar to mess with further options.

4. Finder Path Bar
This gives the option to see the file path of the folder you are currently in at the bottom of the Finder window. The added bonus is that you can click and drag a file into any of the listed folders to move it higher in the hierarchy and can double-click any of the listed folders to view it. To enable this, click View -> Show Path Bar at the top (OS X) toolbar.

5. Finder's Proxy Icons
The little folder icon you see at the top of a Finder window, next to the title, can be right-clicked (control-clicked) to view the file path to the folder you are currently viewing. (This is somewhat redundant to tip #4.) You can click any of the folders listed there to jump to it, or hold command while clicking it to open that folder in a new Finder window.

6. Arrow Key Navigation
As most of you probably know, you can use the arrow keys to navigate around finder (as well as the alpha keys to jump to files). The arrow key navigation is rather self-explanatory and intuitive, so I won't go into too much detail. The only real trick in this one is Spacebar (for Quick Look) when any object is highlighted, and Command + Down Arrow to open a file or folder.